A/N: Okay so a few days ago I was listening to Perfect by Ed Sheeran, and then this idea of a fic just occurred to me that I had to put it down. I was going for a one-shot, but apparently my hands or my mind thought otherwise. :) Anyway, I'm really excited and a little nervous about my first multi-chapter story! So I hope you'll enjoy it as well. However, I do feel like mentioning that the first 2 chapters may seem going a bit slow. That's because I kind of want to talk a bit more about where Chloe and Beca are at their lives and get some backstories in before we can talk about how perfect these two belong to each other *wink*. And don't worry, the story will go a little faster in later chapters and there will be plenty flashbacks.

I wrote the first few chapters while listening to Perfect, so I guess if you could read while listening to it as well, it may or may not enhance the reading experience? And there'll be other songs that I would use, I'll let you know when they come up! Now how did I manage to ramble this much?! I'll shut up now.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pitch Perfect or any songs used in this fic.

Chapter 1

It was nearly midnight. Chloe was just stepping out of her office in the clinic. She looked up at the clock hanging on the wall near the entrance door and sighed. Another day working overtime…Great. She thought to herself and turned off all the lights in the clinic and prepared to finally go home.

It wasn't easy to become a veterinarian, but Chloe made it, and she couldn't be prouder of herself. After those seemingly endless years in vet school, she graduated top of her class with honour and got an internship easily at a local clinic. After one year of internship, she finally became a veterinarian and started to live the dream life she always wanted since she was 8 years old. Just 5 months ago, she opened her own veterinary clinic with some of her colleagues from the clinic where she used to work. It wasn't a big clinic, but the business was doing well so far. And of course, that also meant she had to deal with a lot of paperwork and other administration stuff herself since they hadn't hired that many people in the clinic given it was a start-up after all, thus the long overtime hours lately. But she could hardly complain, it was her dream job after all and everything was worth the efforts.

Chloe walked out of the clinic and as she was locking the door, she felt her phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled the phone out and saw it was a text from her boyfriend, Chicago.

We need to talk. – Chicago

Chloe rolled her eyes, and shoved her phone back into her jean pocket without replying. So much for a talk, another fight is probably more accurate. She thought to herself and sighed, starting to walk back to her apartment.

She had been dating Chicago for almost 2 years. He was a sergeant in the air force stationed in the New York base. They met when Chicago took his dog to her clinic when she was still an intern and had been dating since then. He wasn't a very romantic guy but he was caring and had a stable job. Plus, Chloe's parents liked Chicago a lot, always saying that he was marriage material and had the appearance that many girls would be fighting to gain his attention. Chloe couldn't argue with that even if she wanted to. Chicago was a very good-looking guy, with a pair of bright blue eyes much like Chloe's and short brown hair. And his military background had kept him in a good shape, which Chloe couldn't really complain either. So, it just seemed natural that they were a couple, and Chloe couldn't see any reason to break up with him. And now here they were, 2 years into a relationship and sharing an apartment in the city. But sometimes she just couldn't help but feel like something was missing in her life and she just couldn't figure out what it was. So she tried not to dwell on it, brushing it off as being stressful about work.

Speaking of the apartment, it was located on a nice and quiet street in the city. Chloe fell in love with it when she first set foot in it. It was not too large, but not too small either, with a great view of the city. Chloe loved to sit on the window seat at night, with a glass of wine, and just looked down at all the bright lights of the city, at all the cars moving around the roads leaving trails of light. It felt like home to her in this city, somewhere she could go back to after an exhausting day and feel safe and at ease. And after 1 year of dating Chicago, it felt natural to ask him to move in with her. Chicago wanted her to move into his apartment at first, but Chloe wasn't willing to leave her apartment, so eventually Chicago agreed to move into her apartment. The clinic was not far from her apartment, a 15-minute walk to be exact, which was also perfect since Chloe loved to wander around the streets in the city. She loved to walk on all the fallen leaves in autumn and the crunchy snow in winter, enjoying the warmth and sunlight in summer and watching everything start to flowering in Spring. She always felt like driving would make it easy for people to neglect the beauty in the world, with everything moving in a faster pace. Therefore, she considered being able to walk to work a blessing, mostly, unless the weather was really bad.

Today was one of those bad nights to walk home, given that it was really cold in the middle of November and the piercing cold wind of New York was making Chloe shiver. She hugged her coat closer to her body and increased her pace, but at the same time, she didn't want to go home to a potential fight waiting for her. She and Chicago started to argue a lot recently. It was mostly about little things actually, from Chloe's late nights at work, to Chicago forgetting her mother's birthday dinner. But Chloe knew deep down it was all because of that baby talk they had the other day. They hadn't talked about marriage or babies much, but they've been dating for almost 2 years, and Chloe thought they should at least be on the same page about their potential future together. So the other day, after seeing an adorable little girl in the clinic, she went back home and excitedly mentioned the girl to Chicago. To her disappointment, Chicago told her that he didn't want kids at all, saying they were too much effort and he wanted a quiet and undisturbed home, just the two of them. Chloe then told him that she would love to have at least two children running around in her future house. But Chicago just laughed at her and continued listing the benefits of living without children. So Chloe shut her mouth and didn't make further comments on this. Apparently, they wanted different things and that was why she had been upset with him lately. She didn't know if he would ever change his mind and wanted to talk to him about this again, but with him busy at the air base as always, he didn't make great efforts in understanding why Chloe had been so upset or trying to work things out.

This lack of communication then led to constant arguing, with almost every conversation that they were trying to have turning into a fight. Chicago didn't like Chloe always worked late at the clinic, he didn't understand why Chloe was putting this much effort into the clinic. He made good money and Chloe didn't have to work this hard to support themselves and it was not like veterinarians were like real doctors saving people's lives. After hearing this, Chloe almost kicked him out of the apartment and didn't speak to him for 3 whole days. Eventually they made up after Chicago's constant apologies. But a few days after, they were fighting over another small thing again.

Chloe sighed, slowing her pace despite of the freezing weather. She just didn't know what she was feeling right now. She wasn't unhappy, she liked to think she was content with her life, I mean how could she not? She was a veterinarian, had her own clinic, made decent money and had a boyfriend for 2 years. Life was stable for her right now and she liked to convince herself that her dislike for changes was because life was pretty good, not because she was afraid of those changes.

Lost in her thoughts, she continued to walk and finally noticed that she had walked passed her apartment and was on her way to her favourite park nearby. Deciding she would definitely like to put off this talk with Chicago, she continued her path to the park.

Being typical New York, the streets weren't empty even though it was almost midnight. There were a few people walking around the park, probably taking a midnight walk like herself to clear their minds. And there were still some street artists scattered here and there singing or playing instruments. Chloe stopped once in a while at some tunes that she liked and listened contently. She just loved the vibe in the city like this. It helped calm her down when she was upset or sad, like some people would feel content instantly when they were surrounded by the aroma coming from coffee shops. To her, music was the cure to everything, street music even more so. She loved concerts and theatres and all, but she felt like it was different for street music. The artists usually acted like they didn't have a care in the world, and the music they played always had so many emotions behind it and Chloe would often tear up whenever she heard something so powerful and touching from those artists. That was also another reason why she loved this park so much. Maybe it was because of the scenery, this park attracted so many talented street musicians to play their music in it. Chicago didn't share the same passion Chloe had for music, but he didn't dislike it. He just huffed when Chloe would stop mid-walk whenever she heard something good. He felt like it was a waste of time listening to some nobody playing music in the street. If they were anything good, they wouldn't be in the streets playing for random people who would probably just ignore them.

Chloe was turning around a corner, and suddenly she heard a familiar voice, humming some unknown melody beautifully, while strumming the guitar. She instantly recognized that voice and her heart clenched.

No, it couldn't be…it couldn't be her…could it? She couldn't be in New York…How could she? Chloe's breath caught in her throat. But that voice...she would recognize that voice from anywhere…

So slowly, she looked up to the opposite of the road and could see there was a small crowd gathered around a musician. She couldn't see who it was because her view was blocked by the crowd. So she took a few deep breaths, and walked towards that direction.

The melody became clearer with each step Chloe took and she heard that beautiful voice loud and clear, until she suddenly stopped. Because she could see now, from the space between two people's shoulders, there stood a small but beautiful brunette, singing an unknown song softly while playing her guitar with her eyes closed. She was wearing a black leather jacket with jeans and boots, her long brown hair cascaded down her shoulders, framing her face perfectly. While she was singing, there was a ghost of a smile on her lips and her eyelashes would tremble slightly with every stroke she took on her guitar.

Chloe froze in the middle of the road, dumbfounded and stared at the brunette musician, losing all abilities to think or move all of a sudden. But when she somehow realized that the brunette was about to finish her song and open her eyes, she suddenly came to her senses and used all her strength to run away from her current spot, back to the corner where nobody would see her.

It was her.

Her first love,

Beca Mitchell.